Representing Self at a Tier One University: Conversaciones Entre Amigos

233 p.Thesis (Ph.D.)--University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign, 2003.Historically, in the United States people of Mexican descent have been marginalized by systemic social, political, and economic oppression, which includes the construction of a dominant narrative of a criminalized Mexican identity. As a result, Mexican Latin youth have been dealing with the hardships and complexities of negotiating their identities within this context that does not facilitate educational attainment. For this very reason it is vital to illuminate the lived experiences of Mexican Latin students, such as my friends and I, who have effectively negotiated the multiple facets of our identities to overcome the oppressive forces on our lives, evident by the successful completion of undergraduate degrees at a tier one University and continued pursuit of advanced degrees. Sharing understandings of our lived experiences with one another through conversaciones, our personal narratives created and shaped the dissertation's interpretive ethnographic performative texts that act as counter stories to dominant narratives of who we are. Within these stories we state our ethical, moral, and political positions to counter a criminalized identity, which challenges the dominant notions regarding who are gang members and university students; therefore, these lived experiences are a representation of our own sense of self. Furthermore, our conversaciones have given us an opportunity to reflect on our own identities and lived experiences, but most importantly they are an example of the possibilities a sacred space and bond between people can create. Hence, this work will explore, interpret, and represent the identity negotiation of my two friends who joined youth gangs and myself who did not, vis a vis conversaciones, which points to counter stories playing an integral part in the development of an identity that encompasses knowing one's self worth and integrity, vital in us negotiating and surviving a marginalized existence that has contributed to our successful educational attainment.U of I OnlyRestricted to the U of I community idenfinitely during batch ingest of legacy ETD